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Philosophical Foundations for Conceptual Models

We review and analyze alternative answers to fundamental questions for Conceptual Modelling, such as: (a) What is a conceptual model? (b) Among models used in Computer Science, which are conceptual and which are not?(c) How are conceptual models different from other models used in the Sciences and Engineering? Our study draws from literature in Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Logics, as well as several areas within Computer Science, including Databases, Software Engineering (SE), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Information Systems Engineering (ISE), among others. This is joint work with Nicola Guarino and Giancarlo Guizzardi.